Black Mirrorseason four is going to be as twisted as ever, and it's going to feature a story created by Penn Jillette – yes, the magician.

According to the star, he wrote a short story a few years ago about his time staying in a Spanish welfare hospital way back in 1981.

"During that time, I got this idea for this short story called 'The Pain Addict'," Jillette revealed on his podcast.

"I was postulating a future where you could put a gizmo on your head and feel someone else's pain. So there would be doctors whose whole job it was to feel pain and say, 'His left arm is broken.' 'That's not actually appendicitis, that's a cancer thing.'

"They felt every pain. Like prizefighters and childbirth and child cancer. And this guy gets addicted to it and starts beating people to feel their pain. He also goes through S&M and all he wants to do is jack into Jesus on the cross. He wants to feel that pain."

He further explained: "I wrote this story. It was the first story I wrote when I got a computer. When we did Penn and Teller's first book, we had short stories in it. I submitted this and the editor said, 'That's too dark.'

"I've been trying to find a place for this story, which I thought was really good. I tried to write a comic book and they said no. I pitched it as a movie and they said no. So I told Charlie Brooker all of this and he said, 'Oh, pain addict. That's good!'"